In this #coachbetter episode, Kim talks with Jim Laney, Head of School & Sara Brodhead, Director of Teaching and Learning at Kaohsiung American School in Taiwan. Sara has now moved on to Hong Kong International School, and Jim, who’s still HoS at Kaohsiung, is a repeat guest on the show – check out his earlier episode where we talk about how instructional coaching supports at all levels.

Kim has been working with KAS for the last two years to support their brand new middle leadership team in developing their instructional leadership capacity and applying a coaching mindset to their work. In that time, KAS has also hired two new instructional coaches, and this conversation developed from our work together.

In this episode, Jim, Sara and Kim talk about..

• the development of the new middle leadership and instructional coaching roles at KAS
• the distinction between supervision and evaluation and the professional growth that coaching can provide
• their vision for the new instructional coaching roles
• the structures they are putting in place
• measuring the impact of their work
• how we can help other school leaders and educators see the value of instructional coaching 

This conversation highlights the huge impact an investment in teacher professional growth can have in our schools.

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Show Notes

Jim: started teaching a couple of decades ago, MS, HS, became a principal, then MS, and HS. Fifteen years ago became HoS. My leadership philosophy is based on something I learned in Scouting, always leave the campsite better than you found it.

Sara: started as science teacher in the US, moved abroad, in every school I’ve ever been in, there has not been a solid curriculum, Because I spent so much time with curriculum, I really found a passion in it. I realized when you have that in place, you can really focus on student learning. That’s why I pursued the Dir of Teaching and Learning position.

You’re working hard to develop significant structures of support within your school, including new middle leadership positions and new instructional coaching positions. Please tell us about the decisions to develop these roles and how you’re implementing (or planning on implementing) them.

Jim: Sara has been instrumental in structuring time and systems to develop the written curriculum.

Sara: with MLL leadership, there was a structure that was on it’s way out when I was coming in. For many years we had top-heavy leadership, Principals were leading the PD. They were focused on equity of voice, and teachers having a say in decision making. But eventually we got ot the point where we really recognized that we needed teacher voices in the conversation. MLL was more voluntary. Wanted to accelerate our MYP and DP programs. Wanted something that was more sustainable so we built an HOD structure for MLL positions.

Had an opportunity to add two new positions, adding all these positions to support students, realized we needed to think about how we were giving the same opportunity for teachers to grow.

Jim: We chose to hire an instructional coach, rather than hiring an assistant principal because we feel the most important thing we can do is have really good instruction happening in every classroom. That’s the core of a good school. If we have really good instruction happening in every classroom that’s the most critical thing.

You just added two new instructional coaching positions for next academic year. Why were these the two positions you added? Why do you believe these roles are essential in schools, and in particular for your school? (And of course, how you funded them!)

Jim: The Board has seen improvements happening. Another resource we’ve been able to add is time. When I got here, teachers had 5 PD days during the year. That’s a big reason why there was not a documented, established curriculum, that’s why people were not working together, that’s why the MYP program was not functioning at a moderately successful level.

What I see with a really good coach is somebody who can work alongside master teachers, so everyone can learn with them. And obviously working alongside people who are newer in the profession. We talk about diversity of teachers, we have people with 20 years experience and 2 years experience. In a situation where you have support, then you can have that kind of diversity and be successful.

Bottom line is kids have one year in grade 1, one year in grade 9. We really can’t mess around and hope they get it right. I want to hire younger teachers with less experience and know that they will be successful. I want those master teachers to feel like they’re contributing to the success of their colleagues, they have a lot to offer.

Good teachers want two things: to be growing and learning themselves and contributing to the school community. Coaching enables that. 

Unfortunately as a supervisor, any conversation that’s focused around continuous improvement can be perceived as threatening by some people. Coaching can bring it all together. It has to be deliberate, it’s not an automatic recipe for success. Having time, diversity of staff, support through coaches, connected to other coaches.

Funding: Board has been really supportive of making changes. Board said: we see your three year plan, we think it’s great, can you do it next year.

Sara: KAS, we have 700-750 students, American Curriculum, Common Core. NextGen Science Standards, MYP and DP programs. ES doesn’t have a coordinator, one of the coaches will be targeting ES Literacy. Used stakeholder input to identify the focus for that role.

For Secondary, we have coordinators for MYP & DP, but the instructional strategies that will support effective teaching & learning that will be the role of the Secondary coach.

Jim: 90-95% of students don’t use English outside of the school. 85 min blocks. Understanding cooperative learning strategies, chunking strategies. Instructional coach has a lot of potential to make people feel good about lesson planning.

What’s your vision for the new instructional coaching roles and how might they work together with your recently hired middle leader team to best support teachers?

Sara: Our strategic planning, we have intentions around deeper learning creating effective teaching and learning. Guiding light to bring everyone together. Our HoDs are teachers with a full course load, and their responsibilities with that role is additional. We’re looking for coaches that have the time and the space to work alongside teachers, where most of our HoDs would love to do that, they don’t have the flexibility in their schedules to do that. There’s a partnership for how they can work together to support the department.

We have so much good teaching going on, being able to see that consistently throughout the school, through classroom visits will build a culture of open classrooms for anyone who wants to learn – students or teachers.

JIm: one of our coaches has more experience, the other is a really great instructional practitioner. The more experienced coach may work with HoDs to help them make their meetings more effective. 

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Show Notes continued…

What structures are you putting into place – or thinking about – to help support the success of your new instructional coaches and your new middle leaders?

Sara: Coaches have reached out to me, wanting to start out the year, communicating their role, how they’re here for teachers benefit and ultimately student learning. For the person in my role to have those thought partners, and insight into whats happening in classroom. Be in the Office of Teaching and Learning, to make it a place that teachers want to come for support in implementing the curriculum well, so that students feel like they belong and can learn well in my classroom.

Jim: Reorganized elementary schedules so all grade levels have common planning time. Vision for instructional excellence: Sara has led a session with thought leaders, narrowed in on 5 domains that encapsulate instructional excellence here at KAS. Includes two elements: what do we see teachers doing, what do we see students doing in the classroom. A powerful framework for conversations that coaches, and teachers, can be having. 6th domain : what do leaders have to be doing to make these happen.

When we implement new positions, I know we also want to measure the impact of those positions. What are your plans for measuring the impact of these new positions?

Jim: going to be key for keeping the boards support. We have a foundation for external assessment using MAP, CAT4, IB Scores, MYP e-assessments to have some objective data. Other things like retention, anecdotal data, good teachers want to be learning and contributing, if we can make sure those are happening maybe we’ll see retention rise as well. If we’re doing a good job of literacy will we see, library book check outs improving ? If every teacher in secondary sees themselves as teaching English, maybe we’ll see some other impact.

Sara: Secondary teachers do a survey every semester, maybe we can restructure those surveys to get student feedback. If teachers feel like they can use that data to go to a coach to get feedback and support from a coach. Then getting follow up data from students.

How can we help educators, and school leaders, see the value in coaching – for themselves AND in terms of instructional coaching programs in schools?

Sara: We value adult learning, we want to see our teachers are learners growing in their profession. This isn’t just a stopover. We want people to feel like they’re leaving here as better instructional practitioners than they came in.

Sara: As much as we love the PD opportunities available to us, the relationship piece that you don’t get from external consultants, the context of our school isn’t built in with external consultants. What if you had someone working alongside you, who understands all of these contextual elements, this is part of community building, the culture, learning from past experiences

Jim: Opportunities for master teachers to be learning. Bespoke training and learning and growing. Many of our teachers have worked with ELL teachers or Learning Support teachers, seeing things happen in their classroom, will help people see the values. If they can see and hear some success stories and know that there’s no threat

Sara: trying to make the conscious decision to keep appraisal separate from coaching. Being very thoughtful, where can we keep coaches so they can talk to people they need to talk to where teachers don’t have to go by the principals office to see the coach. Confidential. 

Jim: not on  Important that we separate them from the senior leadership team, don’t want the perception that we’re meeting and talking about teachers all the time.

What should school leaders (or coaches) consider when working towards building a coaching culture? 

Sara: When I was new in my role, Jim made sure that I felt supported. He offered coaching for me. I’ve worked with you, you’ve coached me this year. Having school leaders talk about their coaching experiences and demonstrating that they’re learning in their roles. Normalize the culture of accepting that we’re all growing. We want to take the idea of perfectionism off the table, this is not about becoming perfect. We’re not seeking 100%, we’re just making sure that if you want to be here, if you want to be with our students, and moving towards and supporting our schools growth, you are the best person for the role. We want to celebrate your growth with that support when you want it. You’re already a successful teacher, if we can support your success journey along the way so you feel like you’re a more effective teacher and you’re enjoying your time with your students in addition to your learning, that’s what we want here.

Jim: Sometimes excellence is the enemy of good. If you’re building a coaching culture, don’t feel like you have to do it alone, there’s lots of ways to network with people and schools who are already doing it.

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Ready to Learn More about Leadership in Instructional Coaching?

If you’re ready to dig deeper into how leadership and instructional coaching work together in a school or organization – or if you’re new to instructional coaching and you’re curious about getting started, join us for one of our courses for coaches!

To learn more about these options, we have three FREE workshops to share with you today.

For New or Aspiring Coaches

If you’re just getting started as a coach, and you want to be successful in your early years, watch our New to Coaching Workshop, which highlights the key mindset and skill set shifts you’ll need when moving from the classroom to a coaching role. The workshop will also tell you all about our online course, Getting Started as a Coach. This course is specifically designed for classroom teachers who are moving into a coaching role so you’re prepared for the transition. It’s focused on exactly the skillset & mindset shifts you need to so you can be successful in your first years as an instructional coach. 

For Experienced Coaches

If you’re already a coach & you want to think about being more intentional & strategic in your practice, watch our workshop on the Thrive Model for Coaching Success which will help you evaluate your program and your practice to see where you may have room to grow. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of exactly what you need to focus on to build a thriving coaching culture – and help you decide if our year-long mentorship and certification program, The Coach, is right for you, right now. This program is designed for current coaches who are focused on building a coaching culture through intentional and strategic coaching work at all levels – with teachers and school leaders.

For Coaches Ready to Lead

For experienced coaches ready to look at the bigger picture of the school to see what might be supporting or hindering the sustainability of the coaching program, and you want to make sure your school has all of the systems and structures in place, watch our workshop: Scaling Your Impact as an Instructional Coach. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of what’s needed to make coaching sustainable for you as an individual coach and for your school. When you’re ready to put that learning into action, join us in our online course for coaches ready to lead: Coaches as Leaders and put it all into practice – with support from Kim and our global cohort! This course is designed for experienced coaches, ready to lead.

You can find all the workshops on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops

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